A unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army has been tied to a location believed to be the source of “an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies,” according to a report in the New York Times on Tuesday.

“An unusually detailed 60-page study, to be released Tuesday by Mandiant, an American computer security firm, tracks for the first time individual members of the most sophisticated of the Chinese hacking groups – known to many of its victims in the United States as ‘Comment Crew’ or ‘Shanghai Group’ – to the doorstep of the military unit’s headquarters,” the report says. “The firm was not able to place the hackers inside the 12-story building, but makes a case there is no other plausible explanation for why so many attacks come out of one comparatively small area.”

Over the past year, Global Public Square contributors have looked at a range of cyber issues, from the potential threat posed by Chinese firms to what the U.S. can do to improve its cyber defenses.

“Weak cybersecurity renders America less secure on a global strategic level,” wrote Katrina Timlin, a research assistant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on GPS last February. “Around seventy countries are building cyber capabilities for their military or national defense infrastructure. Among the most capable countries are Russia and China, historical competitors with America.”

“Although they are unlikely to launch a spontaneous cyber attack, it is understandable they are probing our vulnerabilities and testing the limits of cyber espionage. America’s competitors have clear incentives to seek economic and military advantage through these ‘illicit’ means, and America’s inability to properly defend its cyber infrastructure is only facilitating this nefarious behavior.”

How should the U.S. respond?

According to A. Greer Meisels and Mihoko Matsubara, the United States and its allies need to coordinate their response to these threats. “As countries pursue interoperability for the sake of military efficiency, they also face an increase in shared vulnerabilities. Washington should take advantage of its pre-existing alliance network and serve as a hub to synchronize such efforts,” the authors wrote in October. “This requires developing robust, actionable intelligence capabilities that can provide real-time information to decision-makers in the United States, to private companies, and to its allies.”

But Jennifer Stisa Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, suggested that in the push to find solutions in the U.S., it’s worth asking whether more legislation is the answer.

“Bringing federal agencies up to par won’t…require new laws. President Obama could implement much of the Cybersecurity Act via executive order,” Granick wrote in August. “Further, government may be able to raise standards for critical infrastructure networks through regulation rather than legislation. In most critical industries, electricity, nuclear power, chemical plants and water safety are already heavily regulated by the government. So why, for example, did NASDAQ get hacked in 2011? When we, or Congress, understand this, we can apply the tool that would improve the situation, whether it’s Securities and Exchange Commission regulation or new laws.”

soundoff(89 Responses)

Adventure49

Much of this is industrial espionage. China doesn't want a military confrontation with us, they prefer to win on the economic battlefield. They want the Citizens Against Government Waste ad "Now they work for us" to become a reality.

We are no different. Do you really think that we have no cyber soldiers out there? Do you think that your web experience is not controlled by the government? Try to register the domain newrevolution and see what happens.

First of all when we hack into their systems all we get back is what the chinese stole from everyone else. Do you really think that the chinese can innovate on their own under such restricted conditions! Besides where would china be if it weren't for American technology. They would all still be using rickshaws for transportation. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times "NEVER TRUST A G00K!".

Consider this. Most of the computers here are made with parts from China. Do we know if these components only do what we bought them to do, or do they provide a "back door" to those who designed the circuit firmware? Who checks whether these cards and boards have exploits built in?

China is a massive threat to the rest of the world. Period. If you've every been to China you know that if they ever did take the world over that humankind might as well hang it up and let some other species take over. The quality of life there is very poor for most people and any attempt to protest most likely puts you in prison. The communist elite steal whatever land they want from everyone else, and send those that complain to black prisons that are not even part of the official legal machinery there.

Like the US is any better? Let see no real health care, crazies with guns, lobbyist in control of your congress, a useless congress and the media which keeps the masses i.e. sheep ignorant and hateful like yourself..... And that's just the beginning... 16 TRILLION+ national debt and more to come!

We are all being "played" by the media, left and right. There really are no "truths", just "positions" and "interests". Not so long, historically speaking, after the old Soviet was put to bed, we look to our next "boogy-man" so we can all be herded into following our masters wishes.

USA has the largest and most advanced hacking organization in the whole entire universe, Period. Agree? Every once in awhile, we just have to bring up this bad dude, which's CHINA in the neighborhood, so everyone will scare of him and not do business with him, instead do business with USA.

China will deny it until they are blue in the face, but they are doing it. In fact, about two years ago, it was in the news that they hacked into something really important, and before Chinese officials could get to them, their Cyber Geeks boasted that they were able to hack into any computer system in the world. i.e. they tipped their hand. Their geeks stated that there was literally no system in the world that could defend against their hacks. Immediately after that, there was complete silence from their side, as would be expected. The Geeks were obviously told to shut-up. After that, there have been several reports pointing the finger at them, but they deny it every time. Seriously, would anyone really expect them to admit to it ??? This is obviously of the utmost importance at this time. We should spare no resources to address the issue.

OK so you have traced the problem to one single 12 storey buidling in China. If the PLA was really spying on US using this location they would immediately shut it down and shift their attacks to anohter adress.

If this does not happen, then this is a decoy and they want to be caught.

I really don't think they are stupid enough to be tracebale – it is much more plasuible that they have several levels of decoys and outsource the job to somepne else:

Just because the brutal Chinese Communist Party is helping a few rich, greedy Americans get richer, don't imagine that they like Westerners or are not brainwashing their people about how evil Americans are. Even though on the outside, they smile and shake our hands, and they try to dress and be like us, one would be quite surprised if he or she could read Chinese schoolbooks and learn exactly what the evil Party teaches its children about us. Americans have been mislead by their Government and media into trading with the enemy, and I mean the enemy. The cruel Party has murdered one hundred million of its own people since 1949, imagine what it would do to us given half a chance. This is just my understanding, thank you.

FIRST OF ALL CHINA IS A STUPID COUNTRY , AMEN . HELL TO THE WORLD FULL OF KARMA ARE ALREADY BEEN MADE IT , IT JUST A MATTER OF TIME FOR THIS WORLD TOBE BLOWN APART VERY SOON , AMEN HELL TO THE DOG DUMB ASA HELL KARMA SEEKER , AMEN .

Post a comment

CNN welcomes a lively and courteous discussion as long as you follow the Rules of Conduct set forth in our Terms of Service. Comments are not pre-screened before they post. You agree that anything you post may be used, along with your name and profile picture, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the license you have granted pursuant to our Terms of Service.

About us

The Global Public Square is where you can make sense of the world every day with insights and explanations from CNN's Fareed Zakaria, leading journalists at CNN, and other international thinkers. Join GPS editor Jason Miks and get informed about global issues, exposed to unique stories, and engaged with diverse and original perspectives.